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[00:00.40] For me, it was bacon. There I was, standing in the streets of Medellin, Colombia, looking hungrily at a delicious empanada.

[00:10.76] The sign read 'queso y tocino'.

[00:14.48] Because I'd got my tongue round some essential Spanish vocabulary, I knew that 'queso' was cheese.

[00:21.65] But 'tocino'? I typed it into my smartphone translation app.

[00:26.70] What came back? 'Tocino'. I later learned that means 'bacon' in the local lingo.

[00:35.73] Computer-assisted translation is popular.

[00:39.18] Google Translate, for example, is used by more than 500 million people.

[00:44.76] But while convenient and easy to use, they are hardly perfect.

[00:50.07] Now, dropping the odd expression now and again is hardly important on an informal conversational level – as might happen to a tourist on holiday.

[00:59.37] But in more formal circumstances, such as a medical or legal discussion, the wrong vernacular can be disastrous.

[01:08.40] So, can a computer translator ever equal a human?

[01:15.04] The technology has come a long way.

[01:18.23] These days, people can wear a 'translation earpiece'.

[01:22.21] These pick up the foreign terminology and translate it directly to the wearer.

[01:27.53] Andrew Ochoa, chief executive of US start-up Waverly Labs, a producer of one such earpiece, says they work by 'combining a network of algorithms and speech-recognition technology'.

[01:41.07] But they have limitations. Firstly, there's a delay while the phrase is translated. How long often depends on the connection strength.

[01:51.16] Secondly, they aren't able to communicate human sentiment well.

[01:56.74] Human conversation is subtler than just the words used.

[02:03.38] It has tone, attitude, nuance, for example.

[02:06.57] "If you want to create a relationship… you need a human translator to make it sound natural,"

[02:12.68] Zoey Cooper, brand and content director at Wordbank, a global marketing and translation agency, told the BBC.

[02:21.98] So, while many professional translators do use computer-assisted translation tools to help them with the repetitive nature of translation, context is important.

[02:34.46] It might work well for a survey or instruction manual, but for important human-to-human speech, and for the time being at least, better to use a translator, or your message might get garbled or lost in translation.